Where is the childish excitement?

In a recent post from his Wine Anorak blog http://www.wineanorak.com/wineblog/from-the-road/on-the-road-in-tokaj-hungary, Jamie Goode writes about a trip to the Tokaji region of Hungary. “It fills me with a sense of childish excitement when I visit a new wine region. I’ve said it before, and likely I will say it again, that it is when you visit a region that the penny drops: all the book learning and knowledge of the wines falls into place, and you begin to understand the wines on another level.”

We need to capture the mystique of our terroir

How lovely. I just wish the owners of some of Lebanon’s newer wineries would embrace his “childish excitement” and not just think in terms of making a product that they think will give them a bit of class. There are too many new producers springing up who don’t have a clue about making wine in relationship to their terroir, Lebanon’s identity and agricultural tradition. They just want to churn out bland, not to mention commercially unexciting, Cabs, Syrah’s and Chardonnays because that’s what they think they should do and it’s what the punters (don’t?) want. This is not the way to build an industry; Lebanon is too small for this attitude to take root. Maybe I’m being unfair, but I suspect not.